The Afterword

Musings on the byways of popular culture

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I’m all right Jack, help yourself to my stack

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You like the popular beat combo Pink Floyd, don’t you? And, of course you like me – or my incessant Spotify playlists at any rate. Why not combine these two enthusiasms by reading a ridiculously detailed but hopefully entertaining and irreverent feature/essay on the band that I wrote recently. So far it’s been rejected by all your favourite classic rock-adjacent magazines, and nerdy music websites who I thought I might interest in it. But no matter, here it is for free. (And before you say “How egotistical”, or “No I don’t much like ‘the’ Floyd, actually”, this is only the second time I’ve ever publicised my Medium site.) So now you can set the controls and enjoy 33 years of other Horse pop nonsense that I did get paid for back in the day.

NB / The playlist is an economical five hours long and contains such progressive rock titans as Lil Yachty, Boards of Canada and the Bee Gees. You can find it at the bottom of the article, and if you’re listening on a mobile, it’s all shonkily mixed together. OK, I’ll stop talking about Pink Floyd now.

https://medium.com/@martinhorsfield

Nick Mason’s A Saucerful Of Secrets, Enmore Theatre, Sydney Thurs 21 Sep

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When it comes to the Floyd I’m definitely in the “I liked their earlier stuff” camp. So when tickets for this gig went on sale way back in March I was in there immediately, nabbing a seat 7 rows from the front.

It was a great night. As usual with “heritage” acts they played some songs I absolutely had to hear (“Bike”, saved for the encore), some I didn’t expect to hear (“Atom Heart Mother”) and left out some I would have loved to hear (“Julia Dream”). But really – yer mustn’t grumble…

Nick Mason is just wonderful. We’re getting used to sixties era musicians still performing in their eighties, and ol’ Nick is only a few months shy of his 80th. He looks fit and healthy, and for someone whose musicianship has been questioned, even by himself, he plays the drums rather well. He has several spots where he talks to the audience and is friendly and witty. (“Oh sorry that’s my phone – is that you Roger? How are you? Your gong – no sorry I don’t have your gong. Maybe give Dave a call”) Gary Kemp, a relatively spring chicken at 63, who looks like » Continue Reading.

Earlier stuff. Later stuff. Or all their stuff?

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Once upon a time it was an axiom of this place that people liked a band’s “earlier stuff”. You know, being old and in the way and generally grumpy about this ‘ere modern music an’ all.

So let’s share our thoughts on this. Only TWO bands per category so it doesn’t become an endless unreadable list.

It’s very general, for example I have The Beatles as “later”, which doesn’t mean I don’t like their earlier stuff. It’s just that thinking of their overall oeuvre I prefer listening to MMT to WTB.

Here’s mine

EARLY

Frank Zappa and The Mothers Of Invention Pink Floyd

LATE

The Beatles

ALL

Steely Dan XTC

Psychedelic Brass Bands and Missing Links

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I’ve never got on well with Pink Floyd’s song Atom Heart Mother. Brass bands and psychedelic rock are distantly related musical cousins. Brass tends to present a hard, angular, pragmatic sound, completely at odds with the soft edges favoured by space cadets. And on the evidence of Atom Heart Mother, they mix about as well as oil and water. The brass arrives like an uninvited party guest, and parps and farts to no discernible purpose. To these ears, it sounds like it doesn’t belong there. Still, they tried, so full marks for effort.

Recognising their wrong turn, the band wisely banished the brass, and began to refine what would become their signature sound, a languid music of refined, understated power. Take a trip to Cambridge and follow the River Cam, as it meanders through the gentle furrows of Grantchester Meadows. There are echoes of natural themes throughout their work, and it’s no coincidence that their best music has always worked well outdoors.

But hang on a minute. Fast forward four decades and we stumble across a song called Heavenly Waters by British Sea Power. It’s got a brass band all over it, but seems to be trading on the » Continue Reading.

Here’s something the Floyd missed on their box set

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My digitising of vintage off-air reels continues. Here’s something that doesn’t appear to be on the recent Pink Floyd box set (although there are five other versions therein), ‘Apples and Oranges’, a stray track from their first Top Gear session that was held over till 5.11.67 for broadcast. I’m not a Flod buff myself, but I’m sure there are plenty out there who might enjoy hearing this.

https://soundcloud.com/colinh-1/s14-side-2

Wot’s… Uh the Deal? Pink Floyd To Feature On UK Postage Stamps

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It’s official. The lunatics are on the grass and the counter culture is dead.

Pink Floyd, the band whose music was once synonymous with the underground movement, social revolution and mind-expanding drugs, will appear on a set of UK postage stamps later this year (6 LP sleeves and 4 live images).

The stamps look great, but I can’t help feeling a little sad about the whole concept somehow.

The Division Bell sleeve has already appeared on a postage stamp in 2010 of course.

http://i.imgur.com/xdr0ggl.jpg http://www.mojo4music.com/24101/pink-floyd-stamps/

10 Years Ago Today

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2nd July 2005. I had been living in London for almost a year, and my girlfriend was coming over from Dublin to join me. That year has been one of transition and although I was a Londonophile, I learnt quickly that working there was different to visiting there. I hadn’t taken the time, nor had the time, to get to be comfortable with the place. I had also failed to get tickets for Live 8, but that didn’t matter – we already had tickets for Elvis Costello that night in Kenwood House on Hampstead Heath.

For fun the two of us went down to Marble Arch that morning and watched the crowds drifting in. Listened outside to Macca & U2 and some Coldplay before wandering off into central London.

Discovered Marylebone High Street for the first time and ended up in Regents Park watching the show on the big screen. My wonky geography meant we ended up over near Swiss Cottage thinking it would be close enough for the Costello gig (pre-smart phone days, no Google maps in the pocket). A taxi got us there.

Even though I had been living in a 1970s style flat in » Continue Reading.